Epidemiology: Forging the Future: Sex, Money and Power In India

For women in developing countries, economic opportunity and sexual independence are supposed to go hand in hand. So why has India--the world's second fastest growing economy, after China--been unable to control the spread of its HIV/AIDS cases, which have ballooned to 5 million, more than in any other nation? The answer, says Suneeta Krishnan, 35, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, is that in India, "economic freedom stops at the bedroom door."

As part of a four-year study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and an additional five years of funding through the Presidential Early...